Dynamis, Queen of Bosporus
The territory of what is now the Kerch and Taman peninsulas was occupied by Bosporus, a monarchy, from the fifth century BC until the first half of the sixth century AD. Its history and culture is quite well-known owing to many years of researches by a large group of scientists. However, still underestimated is the role of female rulers in the history of this kingdom, particularly, that of Dynamis.
In 63 BC, King Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus, defeated by the Romans and betrayed by his own son, committed suicide in Pantikapeus (now Kerch). The Roman administration handed over power in the Bosporus Kingdom to his son Pharnaces. Dynamis, born in 65 BC, was the daughter of this same Pharnaces.
Although Pharnaces supposedly pursued a pro-Roman policy, he always nurtured a hope to restore his father’s state which included, in addition to the Crimea, a considerable part of Asia Minor and the Caucasus. He waited only for the right moment to begin hostilities against Rome. The empire was going through hard times in the late fifties of the first century BC. The collapse of the triumvirate and the beginning of civil wars aroused in Pharnaces the illusion of a possible victory over Rome. When the feud between Pompey and Caesar turned into open armed confrontation, he began to act, relying on his own forces. In January 48 BC Pharnaces, having left in Bosporus his deputy Asander, a person of non-Greek origin, moved toward Asia Minor via Colchis. Despite the bitter resistance of some Greek cities there, he united huge territories with his state and seemed to be close to achieving his goal. But these plans were foiled by Caesar who force-marched his battle- tested legions from Egypt to Asia Minor. The two opposing armies clashed here, near the small town of Zela. Trying to strike a deal with Caesar, Pharnaces mentioned the name of Dynamis for the first time during these negotiations. Pharnaces offered to give her in marriage to Caesar. He wanted to become personally related to the powerful Roman dictator and conclude a beneficial peace treaty. However, Caesar declined this proposal and routed the Bosporians in a bloody battle on August 2, 47 BC. It is after this victory that Caesar sent to the Roman Senate his famous laconic message, “I came, I saw, I conquered!”
Pharnaces fled to Sinope, whence he sailed to Bosporus with a small detachment of cavalry. Aided by the Scythians and Sarmatians, he captured Pantikapeus and Theodosia, but Asander, who had reinforced his power in the Bosporus Kingdom while Pharnaces was away, routed him and became de facto ruler. However, the Romans refused to recognize him, and Caesar sent against him his friend Mithridates of Pergamon, who was eventually entrusted to rule the Bosporus Kingdom. The usurper managed to keep the Roman puppet away from Bosporus and had him killed in an armed conflict in 46 BC. Asander assumed the official title of archon (the top office in Greek cities), not that of king.
In spite of all Asander’s efforts, he was never officially confirmed as monarch by the Romans. Thus, trying to make his power look lawful, he married Dynamis, legitimate heiress to the throne, thus becoming a legitimate ruler. In the eyes of contemporaries, this marriage turned Asander from a usurper into one who continued the Achaemenid-Pontic dynasty’s traditions. This event occurred in 45-44 BC, when Bosporus issued into circulation the first gold coins on behalf of King Asander.
Dynamis became the wife of her father’s betrayer and murderer. From the viewpoint of today, this might seem abnormal. But we should not forget that Dynamis was a product of her times. As Mithridates’ granddaughter, she was taught from early childhood the customs of oriental despots who were not averse to greed, despotism and intrigues. Still in her youth, the princess knew she could have no scruples, including moral ones, in achieving her goals. Devoid of the support of her father who died in the fight against Asander, Dynamis encountered the real menace of losing her inherited power and even life. But she displayed the truly strategic wisdom of a mature politician. This union was beneficial to both partners for the time being. It allowed Dynamis to keep the throne occupied by representatives of the Mithridates dynasty.
In 42 BC this marriage, sealed with intrigue and greed, was recognized by Marc Antony because the current situation had created a certain domestic political stability beneficial to Rome in Bosporus. This inspired a hope that Bosporus rulers would pursue a pro-Roman policy and not defect to Parthia, Rome’s eternal enemy.
It is difficult to say in what measure Dynamis influenced Asander’s foreign and domestic political course: there are no sources to this effect. All that is clear is that Asander, a talented politician, showed himself to be an energetic ruler when he ascended the throne. Civil wars in Rome kept the Roman administration from actively intervening in the affairs of Bosporus, and Asander in fact pursued quite an independent policy until the year 31 BC, when, as result of the naval Battle of Actium, Octavian Augustus became the absolute ruler of the far-flung Roman state. On the advice of his closest lieutenant Vipsanius Agrippa, Augustus decided to tip the balance of forces in Bosporus in favor of Dynamis, the more so that Asander was very much obliged to Marc Antony, Augustus’ bitterest foe, the very mentioning of whose name would throw him in a fit of fury.
In 22-20 BC Augustus and Agrippa went East to reorganize the system of administration in, among other places, the dependent and vassal kingdoms. He forbade Asander to issue gold coins but, on the contrary, allowed Dynamis to mint gold in her own name. The gold stater of 21-20 BC was issued according to the calendar used by her grandfather and father. Rome thus refused Asander political support and bet on Dynamis. Yet, judging by the inscriptions found during excavations in Bosporus, both King Asander and his royal consort Dynamis enjoyed equal rights in ruling the kingdom. Nevertheless, the role of Dynamis was enhanced in 30-20 BC.
The minting of gold coins in 17-16 BC on behalf of Dynamis, without mention of her husband, makes it possible to conclude that the aged Asander had died by that time or, with active encouragement by the Romans, ceded the throne to Dynamis who thus became the sole ruler. It is not ruled out that a certain role in this was played by Augustus’ wife Livia who, as is well known, actively interfered in state affairs and afforded protection to female rulers. It is difficult to say where exactly Livia’s hand was at work, but the fact that Dynamis honored the empress with a special inscription testifies not only to the Bosporus queen’s pro- Roman sentiments but also to certain relationships that had arisen along with them.
Some time later, Bosporus saw a certain Scribonius who styled himself a grandson of Mithridates VI Eupator and, quoting an injunction by Augustus, married Dynamis. He followed the footsteps of Asander and, entering into a marriage with the legitimate queen, tried to occupy the throne. On learning this, Vipsanius Agrippa sent Polemo I, the King of Cappadocia, against the upstart in 14 BC. There was no armed confrontation, for Scribonius was killed by the insurgent Bosporians who had never recognized him as their king despite his marriage to Dynamis. Following these events, perhaps by order of Augustus, Dynamis again, for the third time, became the wife of a Bosporus king, this time Polemo. Polemo ruled jointly with Dynamis in 13-12 BC. However, he married Pythodoris, the granddaughter of Roman triumvir Marc Antony, in about 12 BC and had three children by her.
It is now difficult to say anything about Dynamis’s further destiny. Some researchers believe she was by then no longer alive. Others think she, abandoned by her husband, went to the kingdom’s east, where she spearheaded the fight against the Roman client that resulted in Polemo’s death in 8 BC. This problem cannot be definitively solved on the basis of the sources now available. But the fact that Polemo’s wife Pythodoris ordered, like Dynamis before her, to put a salutary inscription in honor of Livia on her coins is, by all accounts, important indirect evidence that Dynamis had already been dead by the time Polemo remarried. The available sources say that Dynamis was born in 65 BC and was to turn 53 in 12 BC. Taking into account that the queen lived a tempestuous and action-packed life, it seems far from incredible that Dynamis could have died at this age.
Yet, the Achaemenid-Pontic dynasty did not end with the death of Dynamis. The almost 25-year-long marriage of Dynamis and Asander resulted in the son Aspurgus who enjoyed a legitimate right to the throne from both his mother and father, the latter having been confirmed as king by Augustus. Later, Aspurgus took advantage of this and, supported by the Romans, became king of Bosporus in 10-11 AD. He occupied the throne until 37-38 AD.
The sources at our disposal portray Dynamis above all as a bold, calculating and, to some extent, cynical politician. She stopped at nothing to cling to the throne. Very little is known about the queen’s private life. However, in spite of scant sources, we can still project, after almost twenty centuries, the image of this woman. A small bronze bust of a woman wearing a conical (the so-called Phrygian) cap was found in 1898 in Novorossiysk. Archeologists think it dates back to the times of August. The woman’s headgear was adorned with stars and flowers and girded with a diadem-like ribbon. Her round face has an oriental cast. Like Livia, the wife of Augustus, she wears a simple hairdo, with hair parted but also with braids hanging down to the shoulders. But, in contrast to Livia and other wives of Roman emperors, she wore earrings. The comparison of this portrait with ones on coins led to the conclusion that this was Queen Dynamis. Today also we can peer at this portrait, trying to understand a woman who experienced both the joys of power and the bitterness of loss in her comparatively long life. Retaining the throne was the main objective of her career.
Bosporus has a multifaceted history. Its throne saw a long string of male rulers, and it is only in the second half of the first century BC that Queen Dynamis played an outstanding role in its political life. This should be obviously considered an exception to the rule, for it was very rare occurrence in Ancient Greece and Rome that a woman could rule such a huge and multiethnic state as the Kingdom of Bosporus then was.
